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Fundraising takes a breather after record 2015

by Sheila Hopkins

As 2016 winds down, data from Institutional Real Estate, Inc.’s FundTracker database indicates investment totals are down from their 2015 heights. In the first 11 months of 2016, funds holding final closings have raised about $85 billion, while 2015 ended with about $110 billion raised by funds closing that year.

Investors are beginning to take a more defensive position (more debt funds, slightly lower risk profile), but funds are still growing in size, and mega-funds are still raking in more than their fair share of capital.

World events appear to be having an impact on investors. Uncertainty surrounding who will be leading the world’s largest economies, how the European Union will fare in the coming months, what will happen to interest rates, how China’s slowing economy will affect world markets, and the belief real estate has reached its peak are keeping some investors on the sidelines — or at least investing in lower-risk, more-defensi